Systems and methods for determining the position of a device

1. A method for determining a position of a device, the method comprising: capturing, using at least one imaging apparatus, celestial information of a portion of a sky, the celestial information being indicative of at least one star parameter of a plurality of stars in the portion of the sky; identifying a star set in the portion of the sky by processing the celestial information to identify a plurality of stars having the at least one star parameter; generating a star set fingerprint which is indicative of the star set based on relative positions of stars in the star set and the at least one star parameter; comparing the star set fingerprint with reference celestial information, the reference celestial information being indicative of at least one star parameter of a plurality of stars which are distributed across a plurality of tiles, each tile having a tile identifier and each tile corresponding to a portion of the sky when the sky is observed from a known location, wherein comparing the star set fingerprint with the reference celestial information comprises: searching the reference celestial information for a star set having a reference star set fingerprint which corresponds to the star set fingerprint; and identifying each tile having a star in the star set determining the position of the device relative to the known location based on a position of each identified tile relative to the plurality of tiles in the reference celestial information.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the device is carried by an autonomous vehicle selected from a group consisting of an aircraft, a car, a motorbike or a ship.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the method further comprises: controlling navigation of the autonomous vehicle in response to the determined position of the device.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein capturing the celestial information comprises sensing at least one celestial parameter selected from a group consisting of luminosity, mass, size, relative distance between stars, radius, colour or temperature.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the at least one imaging apparatus comprises a camera and a telescope.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein identifying the star set comprises recognising positions of a plurality of stars relative to one another.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the method further comprises: detecting a height of the device relative to a predetermined point on earth; detecting an angle of observation of the stars by the imaging apparatus; and using the detected height of the device and the detected angle of observation to determine the position of the device relative to the earth.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the method further comprises: defining each star in the star set as a node; and computing a link between each node and at least one of the other nodes to generate an undirected graph.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein each tile has a same predetermined width and height as the other tiles.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the reference celestial information comprises data which is indicative of a position of a plurality of stars in the sky according to an equatorial coordinate system.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the method further comprises: adding the celestial information to a graph, wherein generating the star set fingerprint comprises generating the star set fingerprint based on the graph.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein the method further comprises: dividing an image of the sky into a plurality of tiles; identifying a set of stars in each tile; generating a star set fingerprint for each identified set of stars; and storing each tile with a tile identifier and a star set fingerprint for each tile.

13. A system for determining a position of a device, the system comprising: a processor; a memory storing reference celestial information, the reference celestial information being indicative of at least one star parameter of a plurality of stars which are distributed across a plurality of tiles, each tile having a tile identifier and each tile corresponding to a portion of a sky when the sky is observed from a known location; an imaging apparatus configured to capture celestial information of a portion of the sky, the celestial information being indicative of at least one star parameter of a plurality of stars in the portion of the sky; an identification module configured to identify a star set in the portion of the sky by processing the celestial information to identify a plurality of stars having the at least one star parameter; a fingerprinting module configured to generate a star set fingerprint which is indicative of the star set based on relative positions of stars in the star set and the at least one star parameter; a search module configured to compare the star set fingerprint with the reference celestial information by searching the reference celestial information for a star set having a reference star set fingerprint which corresponds to the star set fingerprint and identify each tile having a star in the star set; and a positioning module configured to determine the position of the device relative to the known location based on a position of each identified tile relative to the plurality of tiles in the reference celestial information.

14. The system of claim 13 , wherein the system further comprises: a control module configured to control navigation of a vehicle in response to the determined position of the device.

15. The system of claim 13 , wherein the imaging apparatus is configured to sense at least one celestial parameter selected from a group consisting of luminosity, mass, size, relative distance between stars, radius, colour or temperature.

16. The system of claim 13 , wherein the imaging apparatus comprises a camera and a telescope.

17. The system of claim 13 , wherein the system further comprises: a height detector configured to detect a height of the device relative to a predetermined point on earth; and an observation angle detector configured to detect an angle of observation of the stars by the imaging apparatus, wherein the positioning module is configured to use the detected height of the device and the detected angle of observation to determine the position of the device relative to the earth.

18. The system of claim 13 , wherein the reference celestial information comprises data which is indicative of a position of a plurality of stars in the sky according to an equatorial coordinate system.

19. A navigation system for a vehicle, wherein the navigation system comprises: a processor; a memory storing reference celestial information, the reference celestial information being indicative of at least one star parameter of a plurality of stars which are distributed across a plurality of tiles, each tile having a tile identifier and each tile corresponding to a portion of a sky when the sky is observed from a known location; an imaging apparatus configured to capture celestial information of a portion of the sky, the celestial information being indicative of at least one star parameter of a plurality of stars in the portion of the sky; an identification module configured to identify a star set in the portion of the sky by processing the celestial information to identify a plurality of stars having the at least one star parameter; a fingerprinting module configured to generate a star set fingerprint which is indicative of the star set based on relative positions of stars in the star set and the at least one star parameter; a search module configured to compare the star set fingerprint with the reference celestial information by searching the reference celestial information for a star set having a reference star set fingerprint which corresponds to the star set fingerprint and identify each tile having a star in the star set; and a positioning module configured to determine a position of the vehicle relative to the known location based on a position of each identified tile relative to the plurality of tiles in the reference celestial information.

20. The system of claim 19 , wherein the vehicles is an autonomous vehicle selected from a group consisting of an aircraft, a car, a motorbike or a ship.